The Adventures of a Christian Mom, Grandma and cancer surviver!

Have you ever had a ‘strange’ day – one that starts off weird then just keeps going? I woke up at 5 a.m. today and couldn’t get back to sleep. Conflict with youngest son over going to school/weather (raining & freezing, but according to local TV, school as usual). It’s now 12:35 p.m. and it’s still raining, rain freezing to bushes & trees, but not on cars & roads (go figure THAT one out!). Will have to go out around 3:20 to pick up son from school, not sure yet if we’re going to cancel special needs group tonight – awaiting decision from main leader. More strange stuff: found 3 responses to emails I’d sent to various people – all responses were in the ‘spam’ folder – good thing I check that every once in awhile! Let’s just say, at this point in the day, it’s definitely NOT my average day so far (sure hope it turns out it’s back to a fairly normal day from here on out – we’ll see.)

Recipes? Have a LOT of them to share with you (let’s just hope that THEY post like I’d like them to: without huge spaces between lines, or all of the recipe jammed together in a sort of paragraph instead of the usual recipe posting list). Not much else new here: 33 degrees & light drizzle. Predicting cloudy tomorrow, thunder showers Friday high of 52, Saturday snow showers, windy – high of 34 – oh, goody-sigh) SO FAR NO LUCK ON ‘COPY & PASTE’ WITH THE RECIPES – THEY KEEP COMING UP IN A GIANT LINE, NO SPACES. Will keep working at it…

Preheat oven 4oo degrees
Line a baking pan with non-stick
foil. In large bowl, drizzle a little
olive oil over the potatoes &
onions; toss lightly to coat
evenly. Spread mixture out
on foil lined pan. Slice the
kielbasa, then cut slices in
half. Spread kielbasa over potatoes
& onion. (Make sure onions are
lying flat, otherwise they will
burn).
Bake 40 minutes or until
potatoes are light golden
brown. Mix together
dressing. When potatoes,
onions & kielbasa are out
of oven, remove them with
slotted spoon, to a large
bowl. Pour dressing over
and toss to evenly coat.
Serve warm or hot.
(recipe: Peg-Marys
Recipe Exchange)
—————————Dessert Tacos

Here it is almost 8 p.m. and it’s been a busy day. Have you checked the gas prices lately? Saturday evening I needed to fill my tank in preparation for the driving back & forth to church several times Sunday – at that time I was not too happy to be paying $3.69/9 per gallon when earlier in the week it was $3.49/9. Well, I got a big surprise today while out and about – noticed that it was up to $3.89/9 now! WOW! Not good, for sure!

Got an idea to research something for my grandson – accidentally discovered we still have our old Sega Dreamcast system and four games for it! Grandson has, lately, been wanting to play some of the games the boys play – to my estimation they are both (a) too old for him and (b) too violent/gorey, etc. so I’m really not ready to have him play them himself. The old Dreamcast games are things like Sonic the Hedgehog, a bike racing game, a car racing game and another drive & crash car/bus/truck game – just right for his abilities and age (almost 6). When I made this discovery I thought: wonder how much games would cost for this system now – that sent me on an adventure to Ebay. Well, my friends, even though this system is a good 12 or more years old, the games are still running ‘up there’ in price. Middle son suggested I check out a store called “The Toy Box” which sells used systems and games, which I did today. (I forgot to mention that our system didn’t have the power cord). Power cords on Ebay run about $2.99 plus shipping & handling; got one at that store for $5.99 + tax – better than waiting for it via mail. Now, when I mentioned to the salesman the kind & system of games I was looking for he took me to that area and pulled out an ‘oldie’: “Ecco the Dolphin” – an OK game for a young child but the price . . . $22.99 USED! That’s the original price back in the ’80’s! I was shocked! I’m thinking old system/old game USED probably $6-10.– boy was I wrong! Went on Ebay for a better idea on that – yes, some are cheaper BUT you’re almost at their mercy when it comes to finding the games you want – very few ‘little kids’ games out there now. I’m looking into “Centipede” and “Frogger”, but am waiting to see how my grandson reacts to the system BEFORE I put in bids on Ebay for these games – who knows? He might think they’re really silly and not even want to play them at all! (better out the $5.99 for the power cord than out lots more $$ for the games, eh?).

Oh! Forgot to mention the “Wild Game Dinner” Saturday! Had a fun time cutting pies – just for a small idea of what we did (there were three of us cutting) – we had over 100 slices of JUST APPLE, not counting all the other flavors available – chocolate, lemon meringue, cherry, berry, pecan, and other chocolate/chip combinations (plus 2 chocolate sugar free pies, for those who can’t eat ‘regular’). This year there was LOTS of food for the workers and lots of pie, too. I had a ‘smattering’ of all sorts of wild meats like salmon patties with dill sauce, mule deer pasties, pheasant al fredo (really yummy!!!), deer medallions (too gamey & salty – my estimation), wild boar, buffalo chili (REALLY yummy!), Swedish (deer) meatballs/Sweet & Sour (deer) meatballs, and more I can’t even remember right now. It was a fun, action-packed (and sweet/sticky) evening – came home after working & eating, after about 3 1/2 hours ready for a sit-down and rest!

Our weather was really nasty Friday night (our special needs group’s Gym Night); I spent a few hours on the phone calling everyone and cancelling – we were ‘supposed’ to be getting 4-7 inches of snow but it never came. We got ‘some’ snow (maybe 1 1/2 inches?) but the roads were slippery and it was melting some, then freezing – better to be safe than sorry – especially when we have kids in wheelchairs; plodding through slush/snow/ice pushing a wheelchair is not what we wanted for them or their caregivers.

Just finished dinner: breaded pork steaks, mashed potatoes & beets, now it’s time to ‘dish up’ some recipes for you!

It’s been a tiring, but fruitful morning – went to Office Max for more printer cartridges for the special needs group newsletter. Did you know that Office Max will refund you $3.00 for each HP used cartridge you return to them? (I just returned 5 – helped pay for the new ones I just bought; $3.00 times 5 = $15.00! Stopped at Gordon Foods to get more ‘supplies’ – a big frozen tray of mac & cheese (for the special needs fundraiser next month), 3 boxes of frozen pre-shaped choc. chip cookies (120 per box), also for the fund raiser, plus a few things for the family. Then it was off to Krogers to finish up the grocery shopping. Kroger has a special this week: Buy 4 2 liter bottles of Pepsi products, get 2 bottles free! (works for me – my husband LOVES Mountain Dew). Today is one of two ‘Mid-Winter Break’ off days for youngest, so bought the 40-piece bag of Tostino’s pizza rolls; we ‘celebrated’- each person got 10. Stopped at Tim Horton’s for coffee – they’re having another “Roll-up the Rim to Win” contest – husband won a free donut with his (I haven’t finished drinking mine yet – I like to SAVOR it!) Just finished it – I won a “Please Try Again” – sigh. In years past we’ve won free donuts and a nice amount of free coffees of your choice/size – it’s a little ‘something extra’ that’s always nice to get, especially when you frequent that restaurant, anyway!

Well, according to our local weather channel/report we’ve gone from the expected 4-8 inch snow storm expected this evening, to now it’s 3-5 inches. (Now you can see just WHY I decided to get my running done early). It’s really nice outside right now – clear and 40 degrees – sure hope that storm sort of passes us by! Dinner tonight is spaghetti with meatballs, tossed salad & garlic bread (grandson is coming and I try to make dinner something he likes – makes it much easier on all of us). He’s not really picky, but having a Dad who’s a chef makes my ‘competition’ a lot harder; he’s learning that when you eat at THIS grandma’s house, you eat what’s put in front of you AND you finish your meal. (His dad says he enforces that at his house, too).

After a brief rest up, it’s time to get back to working on the newsletter. Yesterday (for whatever reason I was in a clean up/fix up mood) I happened to start going over the special needs group attendence and address lists – both of which need correcting, as we’ve recently added more students to the group. Oh! Last night we had the largest group ever (that I can recall, and I’ve been with the group since 1993) – we had 36 ‘students’ and at least another 12 caregivers – the room was PACKED! Just before Christmas we had a new lady join our group as a helper (she’s WONDERFUL!); the other leader & I were joking last night: “See? First the Lord adds another helper, then He sends us LOTS more students to make the work load even!” Whew! It was hectic in our room last night, but great to see where the Lord is leading us. Tomorrow night is another Gym Night – anxious to see how many of our ‘kids’ come for that (we typically get less coming to the Gym Night, as most of the group homes only take their charges to one activity per week). Our main leader (my compatriot), said we’re going to do spaghetti & meatballs this time (was originally going to be hot dogs) – we’ll see just where this SNOW STORM puts us as to whether we even HAVE the gym night or not. Really hoping it blows over, as Saturday is my church’s Wild Game Dinner and I’m working in the Pie Room again (yay!).

Well, enough talk about food – time to get down to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of RECIPES!

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
Season ground beef lightly with salt
& pepper. Wash & chop pepper and onion;
saute in a T. olive oil until translucent; add
crumbled ground beef and saute until browned.
Add garlic, celery and taco seasoning; saute
for 2 more minutes. Cook pasta according to
pkg. directions in boiling salted water
(but for a few minutes less time until almost
tender). Butter a casserole dish and place a
layer of pasta, a layer of meat, cheese, and
soup, ending with a layer of cheese. Bake
until cheese and soup melt through and
mixture is bubbly. Stir once or twice, then
serve hot. Makes 3 or 4 servings.

It’s a sunny, bright 32 degrees outside and I’ve got a large batch of recipes just waiting to be shared with you. Upon closer inspection, I find there are quite a few SWEET recipes – enjoy!
=============
Cherry Salad Supreme

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
Season ground beef lightly with salt
& pepper. Wash & chop pepper and onion;
saute in a T. olive oil until translucent; add
crumbled ground beef and saute until browned.
Add garlic, celery and taco seasoning; saute
for 2 more minutes. Cook pasta according to
pkg. directions in boiling salted water
(but for a few minutes less time until almost
tender). Butter a casserole dish and place a
layer of pasta, a layer of meat, cheese, and
soup, ending with a layer of cheese. Bake
until cheese and soup melt through and
mixture is bubbly. Stir once or twice, then
serve hot. Makes 3 or 4 servings.

Friday is here and it’s a beautiful, sunshiny 35 degree day (ignore the remnants of snow on the ground) – it’s SUNSHINY! YAY! There’s just something about a day that starts with sunshine that puts you in a good mood and makes you feel like it’s going to be a great day.

Nothing spectacular planned for the day – working on another chemo cap – this one is in shades of purple; I was at JoAnn’s yesterday and spotted a really pretty variegated purple sock yarn and decided to ‘give it a go’; we’ll see how it works out. My thoughts were: a regular 4 oz skein of yarn makes about 2 1/2 caps, so a 2-something skein of sock yarn ought to make 1 hat, right? We’ll see. Had fun with the yarn sales at JoAnn’s, the $5 skeins were $2.50, so think I bought 4? Took 5 more caps in to the cancer center yesterday (no pictures – they all pretty much look the same).

On the recipes front, haven’t posted in about a week so I have a ton to go through –

Mix cream cheese & butter together in a bowl.
Add powdered sugar & vanilla; add a little milk
to frosting while mixing to achieve creamy
stage. When well mixed, add nuts and stir
to incorporate. Frost each layer with
frosting.

Well, that ought to make up for the recipes I haven’t sent in awhile, yes? Hope

so! Have a great day – enjoy whatever you like doing and remember to

take a little time for yourself!

Hugs;

Pammie

PS: Don’t think I posted on Valentine’s Day – I received 2 new tires & front wiper blades for my car from my dear husband! (Yes, there’s a story behind it – had a flat tire Monday night, Tues. he took car in and got the above-mentioned items). See? Valentine’s aren’t always flowers & candy, but appreciated very much!

we have SNOW! It started out all fluffy and light early today and now, a little after 9 p.m. we have quite a bit of it on the roads, cars, walks, etc. I just returned from picking up youngest at school from his 6-9 p.m. practice and drove a very turtle-like 25 MPH. The roads ARE slippery and it’s still coming down – from what I can learn we’re supposed to get 1-2 inches but I’d say we’ve already exceeded that estimate. I was very happy to realize that I did a ‘good’ thing earlier when I was out grocery shopping and filled up my gas tank – would certainly NOT like to be pumping gas in this downpour! It’s a ‘balmy’ 25 degrees out and I’m told we’re supposed to be getting down to really small digits over the weekend (I think the lady at the bank said below 20 tonight? – oh, goody . . . ).

I did a GOOD thing, though – bought all the fixins to make chili and cornbread, so tomorrow’s dinner will keep our tummies warm, at least! It’s been a rather calm week here, just lots of driving the youngest back & forth to practices. His choir group is going to be singing tomorrow for a funeral; a choir director that was there before youngest started at this school died Weds. and his funeral is tomorrow. My son said that he really liked the gentleman, said he had a great sense of humor and was a really nice guy. (I would think it will be difficult to sing at the funeral, not sure.) My volunteering duties are beginning to overlap – I didn’t realize that my special needs group’s Gym Night this month is on the same evening as my church’s Wild Game Dinner – I had already signed up to cut pies at the dinner, looks like I’ll have to take my name off that list. (there is a second night for the dinner, but I’m usually pretty tired after working a Gym Night, so perhaps this year, I’ll bow out of volunteering for it.)

Not much new on the knit parade (sorry, just couldn’t resist the ‘pun’); I do have another baby bib pattern but am not sure if I’ll actually try it or not (really don’t like working in cotton/dishcloth yarn). Have 3 more chemo caps done and started another one – think I’ll just stick with those for awhile.

Sometimes when faced with a difficult knitting pattern I’m forced to try to re-think it in a different way. I saw this cute pattern for what looked like very easy baby booties – only problem? The pattern was in French! I’m NOT an advanced knitter, my skills are very basic – (read that: I do well with things that are square or rectangular, NOT with rounded corners). I had printed a copy of the pattern many months ago and while looking through my stash of printed patterns I came across the little booties pattern again. After looking it over and realizing I really don’t know how to ‘add on’ stitches at the beginning of a row, I got the idea: “What if I just flipped it over and knit it upside down?” Tried it – it worked! (see the little white booty above). Now, I will say – the knitting of the object wasn’t difficult at all – it was the SEWING TOGETHER that really twisted my mind! It looks very easy in the diagram, but when I sewed it together it just didn’t look right; had to rip out the sewing and try again – second time it worked fine. I’m re-thinking the actual finished product – will do it in a thicker yarn and larger needles (the ‘sample’ is tiny – might fit a premie). (If you read my last post and saw the rather pitiful attempt at knitting a cotton baby bib, I ‘frogged’ it (in knitter’s terms) – I trashed it). My friend that I am knitting baby things for is recovering from her ‘incident’ and will not need surgery, just lots of rest. She writes that she should be able to return to her sewing by the time the grandson is born – she’s thrilled. I found another baby bib pattern which I ‘might’ attempt – this one has rounded corners, so we’ll see . . .

On the weather scene, it’s a grey day today and 34 degrees but still NO SNOW, so I’m not complaining! So far it’s looking like a rather easy-going day – just have to pick up youngest son at 3:15 from his friend’s house. Planning on making a whole chicken in the crockpot and having baked potatoes & some sort of vegetable for dinner, so it’s ‘easy-going’ even on the cooking front!

Recipes! I’ll admit I didn’t ‘follow-through’ on my original plan to send you the rest of the appetizer recipes I found – sorry. By the time I got home from evening choir practice & church, I totally forgot about emails/blog posts, etc. (and NO, I didn’t watch the Super Bowl – just sort of crashed.) Here are more recipes for your perusal:

Preheat oven 425 degrees F.
In 5-6 qt. pan over high heat, stir
turkey, onion, garlic, oregano and
cumin in oil until turkey is crumbly
and no longer pink, about 4 min.
Stir in 1 C. enchilada sauce; add
salt to taste. Cut tortillas in
half. Arrange 1/4 of tortilla halves
evenly over bottom of a shallow
3 qt. casserole dish, overlapping
to fit. Sprinkle 1/4 of cheese evenly
over tortillas, then top with 1/4 of
turkey mixture and 1/4 of remaining
enchilada sauce, spreading each
level. Repeat to make two more
layers of tortillas, cheese, turkey
mixture and sauce; top with
another layer of tortillas and
sauce, then cheese. Bake 18-20
minutes, until cheese is melted and
casserole is hot in center. Sprinkle
with chopped cilantro before
serving. Makes 10 servings.
(recipe: RDJ 10/02/11)
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Today is a balmy 39 degrees with gorgeous sunshine and NO SNOW on the ground! YAY! Our weather outlook for the next 5 days is more of the same – sun and nice temperatures – I’m ecstatic! It’s been several days of catching up on things I’d put to the side, one of which was darning 6 Argyle socks of my husbands, each with huge holes in the heels! That done I patched a pair of blue jeans and finished a small knitting project I’d been working on. This was a ‘new’ project – long story short: one of my friends in the knit group recently received news that she’s going to be a grandmother for the first time and it’s a boy – she’s very excited. The problem? She recently became very ill (bone spur pressing on her spinal cord – possible surgery imminent). She wanted to make baby ‘things’ for the upcoming grandchild but can’t, so a few of the knit group ladies are making things for her to give to the baby. I finished 2 prs. booties, a hat and a bib (first time I’ve attempted knitting a bib – this one is just ok – I’m not real thrilled with it). Not sure if I’m going to do any more to add to this, I’ll think about it. I took her over some White Bean Chicken soup, a large baguette, and chocolate chip muffins for dinner last night.

The bib is done in dishcloth cotton, the hat is a

cable pattern (which doesn’t show here)

Not much else going on around here, we still have our rabbit who lives in our blackberry bushes – we’ve been tossing carrots in there for him and he’s eating them. Love seeing little critters in the winter (but only if they’re OUTSIDE!)

Mix all ingredients together
in a large bowl except flour,
milk & bread crumbs until
smooth, then roll into
meatball sizes. Refrigerate
one hour. Using three bowls,
put flour in one, buttermilk
in another and panko crumbs
in the third. Take each ball;
roll them in contents of each
bowl: flour, buttermilk, crumbs;
set aside. Heat oil in fry pan. Fry
2-3 balls at a time for 1 minute,
until golden brown; drain on
paper towels. Serves 4-6
NOTE from poster:
suggests serving with
horseradish sauce
(recipe: Pam T – justapinch.com)
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